Verizon Wireless, SpectrumCo and Cox went on the attack against T-Mobile, urging the FCC to reject T-Mobile’s arguments against the sale of AWS licenses from the cable operators to Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile has emerged as a leading opponent of the spectrum deals. The broadside comes as the FCC and Department of Justice’s review of the deals appears to be nearing its final stages, with approval likely, though with substantial conditions (CD June 11 p1).
CEA said the FCC should “reject requests to mandate interoperability across all paired spectrum in the Lower 700 MHz band.” The suggestion came in comments filed Friday at the FCC. A 700 MHz interoperability mandate “would increase handset and deployment costs in the 700 MHz Band, which would hamper innovation in the dynamic and innovative wireless handset marketplace by reducing the options manufacturers and service providers have to meet their customers’ needs, and delay broadband deployment,” CEA said (http://xrl.us/bm93x3). “A mandate also would undermine future spectrum auctions and standards-setting efforts.” The interoperability requirement has been a top focus of small carriers, led by the Rural Cellular Association. The Telecommunications Industry Association also filed in opposition, saying such a mandate would delay development of devices targeted for the band. “Device manufacturers face significant technical hurdles to create devices that can operate across all 700 MHz bands,” TIA said (http://xrl.us/bm93yh). “For example, additional components such as filters, power amplifiers, and switches, would need to be inserted into wireless devices. This concern is exacerbated by the fact that, in order to ensure compliance with an interoperability mandate, handsets may be unable to roam onto other bands for national and international service. The number of bands which can be supported by a wireless device are limited, and a handset likely cannot support both roaming and operation across all 700 MHz bands."
Former NTIA Administrator Larry Irving, a Democrat, said Wednesday the Obama White House needs to provide a bigger push to get various government agencies, from the Department of Defense down, to come to the table to discuss clearing government spectrum for wireless broadband. Irving, the longest-serving NTIA administrator, who worked for President Bill Clinton, said just talking about spectrum isn’t enough. Irving was the lead speaker at an event sponsored by the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, and the Rutgers School of Law/Camden: Institute for Information Policy & Law.
Fixed wireless providers need more spectrum to serve the 48 million rural Americans with no access to broadband Internet, representatives of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association told reporters Wednesday. Members of the association, which consists of about 700 small and medium-sized ISPs, were in town to advocate for access to additional spectrum for unlicensed fixed use, and to educate legislators on the value of unlicensed spectrum in bringing fixed wireless broadband to unserved and underserved areas.
Senate Commerce Committee members evaluated the FCC’s positions on wireless competition, the E-rate program, net neutrality, spectrum incentive auctions and broadband deployment, during the agency’s first oversight hearing in three years. The commissioners would not say whether they planned to start an investigation into allegations of News Corp. misconduct, but said they were monitoring the situation. Newly minted FCC commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel were largely silent at the Wednesday hearing, and primarily deferred to established agency talking points.
Having five FCC members for the first time in about a year automatically gives the agency more legitimacy, and the new additions may push the commission to act on some long-pending issues, industry officials and the most recent member to step down predicted. USF contribution is an issue that will see commission action soon anyway, and adding Ajit Pai as the new Republican member and Jessica Rosenworcel as the new Democratic commissioner brings differing views that could be helpful (CD May 8 p1). Meredith Baker left the FCC late last spring, and Pai fills her term through 2016.
Wireless competition has taken a turn for the worse since the Rural Cellular Association filed earlier comments on the FCC’s annual Wireless Competition Report, RCA said in a filing. T-Mobile and NTCH, which does business as Clear Talk, also told the agency the threats to wireless competition are rising, and that should be reflected in the next version of the report. In the last two reports, the FCC declined to draw any conclusions on whether the U.S. wireless industry is effectively competitive.
The Advanced TV Broadcasting Alliance said the FCC should immediately release its allotment optimization model now that the commission has congressional authorization to hold incentive spectrum auctions. The alliance, which had called itself the Coalition for Free TV and Broadband, has been pushing a broadcast overlay plan to accommodate TV stations and wireless broadband spectrum use.
Entravision can’t change the community of license of its WJAL-TV Hagerstown, Md., station to Silver Spring, Md., a letter from FCC Media Bureau Chief William Lake said (http://xrl.us/bm2mep). The station’s application had some procedural problems, Lake said. But “even if we were inclined to overlook the procedural irregularities of Entravision’s new proposal and waive the filing freeze on petitions for rulemaking by television stations to change their community of license, the Commission’s priorities no longer support such an action,” the letter said. Allowing Entravision to move a DTV station closer into a top-10 TV market runs counter to the policy goals of the National Broadband Plan, and the planned incentive spectrum auctions, he said.
Republicans in the House and FCC took aim at Chairman Julius Genachowski for his proposal to require broadcasters to post political files online. At a budget hearing Monday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, the plan was criticized by Chairman Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. Genachowski defended the FCC’s authority to make the change and highlighted the commission’s progress freeing up spectrum and deploying broadband.